Prehistoric Park Returned From Extinction Episode 24:The Carolina Butcher
There is something missing from our world. The amazing creatures that time has left behind. But what if we could bring them back? What if extinction didn't have to be forever? We're going back in time on a safari with a difference as wildlife adventurer Nigel Marvin plunges into prehistory to rescue creatures on the brink of extinction. His plan is to bring them back to the safety of the present and give them a second chance. This time, the team goes back two hundred thirty one million years to prehistoric Carolina, to rescue a fearsome predator: a crocodile ancestor that walked on land. Welcome to the ultimate wildlife sanctuary. Welcome to Prehistoric Park. XXXXXXXXX Prehistoric Park has had many successful missions, seeing the rescue of early mammals, giant sauropods, and scorpions the size of cats. This time, though, Nigel has his eyes set on a different type of creature. Instead of looking at photos in his den, Nigel was now at the crocodile exhibit, watching the modern residents live their lives. Before him, a Cuban mugger crocodile was ambling across the ground, attracted to a piece of meat its fellows had missed. Greedily, it dug into flesh, until none remained, before crawling back into the water. Nigel could help but smile at the sight. "Crocodiles are one of the great survivors. They evolved from the same ancestors as dinosaurs, but while the diosaurs dominated the land, they took to the water. Before they came to rule the waves, though, crocodilians tried to share the land with the dinosaurs. Some famous land living crocodilians are Kaprosuchus, the boar croc, from Africa, Quinkana, which lived in Australia, and the sebecids, which ruled South America. Today, though, I want to go after possibly the earliest of the land living crocodilians." Taking a break from his monologue, Nigel pulled what appeared to the skull of a dinosaur out of his pack. "This is the skull of Carnufex caroliensis. It's name means 'Carolina Butcher', and when it was alive, it was the dominant predator of its home environment. It's not too much bigger than a modern crocodile, even though it stood upright, so I don't think the park would have too much trouble with a couple of these." XXXXXXX Of course, before Nigel can go back in time, he needs to finish up his preparations for the mission. This time, though, he's got help. With a groan, Marcus lowered the crate to the ground. A moment later, Lucas and Sean were busy sorting through the food stuffs, placing any that would be reasonable for the mission into their packs. Tristan, meanwhile, was busy stocking all of the electronics...and feeding one of the park's Microraptor. "How long has that raptor been here?" wondered Sean. "I have no idea, but it won't go away, so I'm feeding it until Bob can get someone down here to bring it back to its exhibit." "Fair enough," responded Luis. "So, we are going to rescue a prehistoric crocodilian that's name literally means butcher, correct?" "Yeah, you scared?" "Actually, Marcus, I am looking forward to it." "...Huh. Didn't expect that from you." "Oh please, I can enjoy manly sounding things." "I didn't say you couldn't." "Guy's, your packs are one. You want me to throw them over?" "Yes," replied Sean. "You sure, dear brother?" "Ha, ha, ha, yes I am sure, just throw it." "You asked for it." Tristan promptly threw the pack. Sean managed to catch it with ease...and promptly landed flat on his back. "Probably should have mentioned that it had a lot of stuff in it." "Oh, screw you." Marcus and Lucas merely snickered at their friend's discomfort, before grabbing their own packs. Tristan joined them, before helping his somewhat indignant brother to his feet. "Come on, we have work to do." XXXXXXXX To rescue the butcher croc, the team will have to go back in time two hundred thirty one million years to Prehistoric Carolina. Overall, it won't be very different from their mission to rescue the Coelophysis. That doesn't mean it won't be dangerous, though. XXXXXXX As the portal closed, the team found themselves in a dry woodland. Overhead, insects flitted through the sky, eating each other or the occasional plant. In the distance, a herd of dicynodonts was ambling across the horizon. In many ways, the scene was similar to the one the team had encountered in Triassic Arizona. "Are the memories coming back yet?" asked Sean. "...Not yet," replied Lucas. "Give me a while," responded Marcus. Tristan simply chose not to respond. Nigel, however, was already looking for creatures to rescue. And he'd already found one group. "Look, in the stream below us." Lowering their eyes to the river at the edge of the hill they had arrived on, the team saw several crocodile-like reptiles resting in an island in the center of the water. Though superficially similar to gharials, none of them had the pots that were found on the ends of male gharials' noses. Additionally, through use of binoculars, the team could determine that the carnivores' nostrils were not at the end of their snouts, but were instead located close to their foreheads. Clearly, these creatures were phytosaurs. Lucas was the first to speak about them. "Are these Smilosuchus or Redondasaurus?" Sean was the one to answer him. "No, these are Rutiodon, if I am not mistaken." "Ok, that one. Well, can we start rescuing them?" "What's the bait?' asked Marcus. "Me," replied Lucas, holding a spade. XXXXXX The plan to rescue the phytosaurs took a page out of Nigel's final solo mission. Lucas used the spade to splash around until the phytosaurs charged him, and ended up leading them straight into the portal. It took only a minute to send them all into the present. True, it was rather simple, but the good start left the team in high spirits. XXXXXXX With one group of animals already rescued, the team is in high spirits. Of course, if they can't find their targets, those spirits are for naught. After finding a way to ford the river, the team continued on through the woodland, still searching for the Carnufex. They left no stone unturned, searching for foot pints, shed skin, teeth, carcasses, anything that could lead them to their target. So far, though, they had no luck. Above them, reptiles glided through the trees, searching for insects to devour. As they grew farther from the water, a silence overtook the team. Lucas was the first to break the silence. "So, can we expect to see any dinosaurs here?" "Unlikely," responded Tristan, "but not impossible - we haven't found any dinosaur fossils in this ecosystem, but they would have evolved by this point. The only oens we know that would havelived in Norht America at this point are ones we've already rescued - Chindesaurus and Caseosaurus. I don't think Coelophysis has appeared yet." "Okay then. So what else are we likely to see?" "Aetosaurs, some dicynodonts, basically everything we saw in Chinle. The local ecosystem is pretty much the same as any other ecosystem on Earth at this time. Supercontinent cause a lot of homogeneity for what lives where." "I know. Kinda boring, isn't it?" "Yes it is. Yes it is" Above the group, reptiles continued to glide in search of food. Some began to land on nearby trees, fighting with other reptiles over the few insects they could find. The team actually paused from their marching to observe the outcome. "Those look familiar," noted Marcus. "Those are some type of Kuehneosaur," replied Nigel, "relatives of the Icarosaurus back the park. I think some of them are Icarosaurus, but I can also see another genus among them. Most likely Rhabdopelix, based on our location. As for the reptiles already on the trees, they look like drepanosaurs, probably Hypuronector. These are small creatures, but their importance to the environment cannot be understated." Instantly, the team shared a knowing look. They could not leave these creatures behind. XXXXXX While the team decides how to rescue the animals, at the park, some of the new arrivals are still getting settled in. Alice watched on in silence as the taeniodonts began to dig into the ground, pulling apart the rainforest soil with their claws. All around them, dirt piled up as the doglike creatures bored in the Earth. Once they felt they had gone deep enough, the emerged from the burrows and began to dig again, this time to find food. One got luck and found a potato plant the keepers had put into the ground. It greedily sank its teeth into the tuber while the rest of its kind continued to root about for food. "These sure are dedicated burrowers." "Yes they are, Alice. Yes they are," responded Vera, who was not to far away, watching the plesiadapids living in the trees. "So, how are you doing with early monkeys?" "They aren't monkeys, but I think they are adjusting well. One of them, though, seems to be having trouble moving through the trees." "Oh. Well, hopefully it adjusts." "It better. I think its mom really isn't happy with it." XXXXXXX Plesi stared at her daughter, confused and annoyed. Why couldn't she be different? Plesi and her mate had cared for her two pups, Strong and Weak, since the two had been born. She had given them food and protection, as any mammalian parent should. But now she had reached her limits. There was only so much she could offer her young before they would need to rely on themselves, and she had long since reached that point with these two. Now, it was time for them to learn how to survive on their own. That meant learning how to jump between trees. To her surprise, Weak had been the one to learn it first. She had misjudged her first jump, true, but she had learned from her mistake, and was now flitting through the treetops like an adult. Strong had made the jump afterwards, unwilling to be second fiddle to her weaker sibling, but she had done so without trying to judge the distance, without bothering to spot where she should land. The plesiadapid paid for this mistake when she fell out of the tree, and landed on some strange bipedal giant. That was why Plesi and her family were where they were now. When Plesi and her mate had descended to find their lost child, joined by Weak, who didn't want to be left alone, the two had been noticed by the strange bipeds. All three had been caught, and the family was moved into this new forest, after passing through a strange light. Here, they found themselves living with creatures that they never knew existed, facing competition with primates unlike any she had ever seen. True, they had never run out of food in the short time they had been here, but she was still very uncomfortable here. Plesi did not blame her daughter for their arrival here, where the dinosaurs somehow still roamed. That was just bad luck. What she did dislike about Strong, though, was that she refused to learn how to climb properly, how to jump between branches. IF her daughter could not learn that skill, then she would not be able to survive. It was hard, true. But it was life. XXXXXXXXXX Back in the past, the team is putting their rescue plan into action. With the portal already online, the team carefully began putting their bait in place. Grubs and crickets were dispersed in front of the portal, themselves baited by plants and sugar. Ture, they had used the strategy in the previous mission, but it had worked there, so why change it. Here, too, the plan worked. The insectivores were swift to end their conflict as they saw the new source of food appear, abandoning their fighting to pursue the insects on the ground. It was only a matter of moments before all were through the portal, where a waiting team of keepers began to put them into observation pens more appropriate for small creatures. Their second rescue of the day completed, the team marched on, still searching for their intended rescue target. XXXXXXXXX Still searching for their target, the team trudged through the woodland, Still searching for the Carolina Butcher. With the majority of the reptiles that had glided overhead having been sent to the park, the world was once more quiet. The only sound to break the quiet was the distant rumble of thunder. Far to the South, the team could see storm clouds gathering. Wispy white clouds had occasionally covered the sun, but it would be some time for the rains to arrive. At least a day, given the speed of the wind. It would take a day before the water of the rains would arrive to quench the thirst of this dry landscape. This was, in many ways, a scene not unlike what the group had encountered in the past, when they had gone back to Triassic Arizona. A parched landscape filled with animals and plants, waiting for their thirst to be sated. Yet this wasn't as severe a drought - there was still plenty of water left, and plants had yet to shrivel up and die. The dicynodonts, too, were doing better, as the team could still see them marching in the distance, though they were now larger than they had been. These herbivores were heading toward the horizon, looking for the rainwater. The Arizonan landscape the group had been to earlier had seen the advent of a Mass Extinction. The world had been slowly getting warmer and drier, owing to increased volcanism heralding the split of Pangaea into Laurasia and Gondwana. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere had begun to increase, though the team had arrived before it had gotten too high. Plants would increase in number as this occurred, but too much carbon dioxide would raise the global temperature high enough to fry many plants, which were already pushed to their limits. The increase in greenhouse gases would be further exacerbated would when the volcanoes went from active to erupting, when at last the supercontinent was split. The change would be too much for some of the old reptiles. Aetosaurs would go extinct, unable to survive in such a hot house world. The temperature change would also wipe out the phytosaurs, whose genders were determined entirely by the temperature they were incubated at. Eventually, most would be born males, and there would be too few females for the population to recover. Many other species would die out, including the temnospondyls and many types of cynodonts. Last to disappear would be the rauisuchians and dicynodonts. Though they were well adapted to the world they lived in, dinosaurs would prove to overwhelm them, growing larger, breeding more numerously, and taking greater measures to ensure the many offspring they had survived into adulthood. In the end, most of the wonderous animals in this world would go extinct, leaving behind no legacy. Yet for the ones that lived in this area would be spared that fate, for the team was unwilling to leave any species behind. XXXXXX Hundreds of millions of years in the future, the serpentine predator stared at the river. Its eyes darted across the surface, trying to find a good target. It soon found one. With a splash, the long necked predator slammed its head into the water, and soon pulled out a fish. Greedily, it swallowed the morsel, before searching for more. This creature was called Tanytrachelos. A relative of the more famous Tanystropehus, this predator was an expert fish catcher, and had already caught several fish in its maw. While its evolutionary cousin lived on the shores of ancient seas and fed on ocean fish, she was a predator of freshwater swimmers, not unlike a certain creature form the Yixian area. Among the many creatures rescued from the forest fire in Triassic Arizona, she was one of the ones that had adapted best to her new home, and was already taking advtange of human hospitality to survive. She had obtained many fish she would never have caught in her homeland, even tasted an ocean snapper, savoring the strange, salty taste. She would take time away from her feasting to examine her new neighbors. She could see dinosaurs that were unlike any she had ever known, among them small fuzzy ones with large claws on their tows. Giant herbivores also roamed the area, though the long necked carnivore had yet to see what hunted these behemoths, and hoped she never did. Stranger still were the fact that many of these giants were cynodont relatives, if their smell was anything to go by. Right now, though, her attention was on the biped that was busy trying to take one of the climbing cynodonts from its troop. This one seemed to be an outcast though why she could not tell. The why did concern her anyway. She had no reason to put value in this animal's struggles, for they did not impact her own. Instead, her attention fell onto a creature she was familiar with. In an adjacent pen, what appeared to be a giant worm stared at her. But worms didn't have jaws, or teeth. This weird creature was actually a Chinlestegophis, a type of amphibian. This weird creature was ancestor to caecilians who, over millions of years, had only barely changed the blueprint evolution had made for their bodies. The legs it had were tiny and almost non-functional, as it only needed its head to burrow. Its tentacles were already flaring about, trying to help it smell its way around its new home. The reptilian carnivore would normally be a competitor to this strange beast, but with food now plentiful, it was willing to share the bounty...for now. XXXXXX Millions of years in the past, the aetosaur relatives scampered about. These creatures were called Revueltosaurus, and had once been mistaken for dinosaurs. The herbivores were out in the heat, trying to snap up some ferns. A strange scent, however, brought their attention to a group of bipeds that had just arrived in the area. For a moment, both groups sized each other up, unsure how to act. Then the bipeds started communicating with each other, and a few moments later, a strange light had appeared, while the bipeds offered them plants. Confused, nervous, yet also hungry, the crocodile relatives eventually followed the bipeds, until they passed through the light and found themselves in a clearing within a humid forest, where they were surrounded by strange, branchless, leafless trees. Following the clearing to its ending, they found food and water waiting for them. Unwilling and, quite literally, incapable of questioning this good fortune, they settled down to enjoy the boons before them. XXXXXXX With the sun now high in the sky, and the temperature starting to become a nuisance, the team took a moment to sit down. In the distance, they could still see the Placerias trudging onwards, trying to reach the rain clouds in the distance. Briefly, the team considered following them some more, but exhaustion ultimately forced their hand. Taking shelter beneath a tree, the boys and men began to pass water and snacks between themselves. "Those Placerias really are determined to keep on marching," noted Marcus. "How long have we been following them?" "About two hours, and yes, they are determined," was Tristan's reply. "They must really be thirsty." "I can't help but agree with you there." Lucas, meanwhile, was busy quenching his own thirst. Nigel and Sean were gathering seeds and saplings to send to the nursery, while the rest of the crew were on the lookout for any signs of danger. As the time passed, and the storm clouds grew ever closer, Lucas pondered his time at the park. Part of him was happy to enjoy this little summer retreat, especially since, much to his surprise, he was being paid for his help. He hadn't expected to be compensated for his time, not when he was just helping a friend. It seemed Tiberius felt their actions worthy of reward. Then there was all the photos he was getting of creatures long thought extinct. True, he could not hope to sell them unless the park went public, but still, they were amazing. Yet another part of him was uncomfortable with how big a secret this was. His parents were both journalists, always looking for stories that would make them rich and famous, even if family and human decency ranked above those other two goals on their lists of priorities. They would have given almost anything to see 'the big scoop' and expose it to the public. Now, here he was, staring at one such possible story, and unable to share it with them. He was under no illusions that they would exploit it, though - Tristan's parents had been his parents' friends long enough that he knew they wouldn't expose such a secret, no matter how much they wanted to. If he told them about this, they would never tell anyone else...well, excluding his sisters. What really irked Lucas, though, was that he couldn't tell them about this. Nigel had asked all of them to sign a non-disclosure form to ensure that the secret of the park did not get out, which he really couldn't fault them for. Who would not enforce secrecy for something like this? At the same time, though, he regretted being unable to tell his parents about this. There were some things he didn't mind keeping secret from them, like the time he'd once spent a night prior to an exam playing Madden and barely gotten three hours of sleep. This wasn't one of them, however. He felt like he was betraying his parents by not telling them about this. He could only hope Tristan's father would eventually let them in on the secret. If he did, then Lucas wanted to be the ones to break the secret to his parents. It was the only way that felt right. A rustling behind him alerted pulled Lucas out of his pondering. Unsure whether the creature behind him was a predator or some lost herbivore, he quickly pulled out a cattle prod from his pack and turned behind him. Steeling himself, he began to circle around the tree where he had been resting, until he came upon a cycad clump. Preparing himself to face whatever was hidden there, he pulled away one of the plants. Before him was the carcass of a dicynodont. The creature had been torn open, with many bite marks all over its body. Atop it was a strange, lizard-like reptile, which was busy tearing into the carcass, occasionally rubbing against the nearby leaves when it tore off a piece of meat. Nearby, a group of cynodonts were busy feeding on some of the leaves, though they kept their distance from the predator. Lucas could tell that these were Boreogomphodon, the same ones they had back at the park. He wasn't sure how some of them had ended up in Arizona, but they were natives to this environment. As for this creature, he wasn't exactly sure what it was...until he noticed a shed tooth lying with reach of him. Taking out a glove, he covered his left hand, then grabbed the bloody fang. He quickly extracted a very powerful magnifying lens from his pack and began examining the tooth, silently thankful Tristan's father had made such a lens that could make minute yet not microscopic details more visible. As he looked over the tooth, he found groves in it, not unlike those of a gila monster or beaded lizard. Those were the teeth of a venomous predator. And there was only one venomous creature in this region. Looking up, Lucas now knew what he was looking at. This was a Uatchitodon, specifically one of the type species, U. kroehleri. The park already had one species of this creature dwelling within it, as several individuals of the second species had been among the many creatures rescued in Triassic Arizona. This one, though, was of the more ancient of the two, as the later species has teeth closer to those of a snake. More noticeably, this one looked rather thin, and had many parasites visible on it. Clearly, life was rough for this critter. Lucas looked at the cynodonts, who were still feeding. Perhaps he could get two species for the price of one? Carefully, he signaled to the rest of the team, who were very surprised to see what Lucas had discovered. Gesturing for them to remain silent, he took out one of the animal carriers they had brought along. Setting it nearby the feeding archosauromorph, he took out possibly the oddest tool one could use for a rescue - his phone. Moving it out into the sunlight, he angled it such that the reflection landed nearby the feeding carnivore, much to its confusion. For a moment, he wasn't sure if it would take the bait. Luck smiled on him this time, though. The reptile attempt to paw at the light, only for it to move out of the killers grasp. Unwilling to let the light go away, the predator pursued it, until the carnivore found itself trapped in a carrier. With the predator secure, the rest of the team rescued the cynodonts with impunity. In a matter of moments, the animals were all in carriers, ready for transport to the present. Now revitalized, the team began to move on, though as a method of insurance for later, they covered the dicynodont carcass with a tarp and took it with them. The best bait, after all, was what your targets were familiar with. XXXXXXXXXXX With their new rescues (quite literally) in hand, the team continued their search for the elusive Carolina Butcher. Seeing no other leads, the team continued to follow the dicynodonts, who, despite having an additional half hour to get ahead of the team, were still within their sight. The distant storm, meanwhile, had grown closer, though it was still at least an hour away from them...at best guess. Its presence, however, created a sense of urgency - nobody wanted to attempt another rescue in the pouring rain, especially with regards to how the last one turned out. The clock was ticking, and nobody wanted to be here when time ran out. Within its carrier, the Uatchitodon squirmed and hissed, trying to break out of its confinement. At least, it tried. After a few minutes of struggling, the tiny creature's strength began to fail. Deciding to save its strength for a later breakout, the predator curled up and did its best to make itself comfortable. In truth, it wasn't really sure what to do in order to escape. It had never encountered animals this large that stood upright. They smelled like traversodonts, but it didn't know if it could hurt them with its venom - cynodonts were vulnerable to its venom, and even giant Placerias fell before the lethal fluid, but these were a whole different matter entirely. What if they had venom resistance? What if their metabolisms were too slow for the venom to weaken them before it could escape. A million problems wandered through this reptile's head, all trying to help it answer just one - how could it escape these giants? It wasn't entirely worried about whether or not they would eat it, for they had carried the carcass with them, and appeared to be omnivores besides, but that did not alleviate all of its fears. The male archosaurimorph, for that was what he was, could not tell if they saw him as food, enemy, or curiosity. Perhaps they merely wished to play around with him before eating him? It wouldn't be unsurprising - contrary to popular belief, predators did occasionally kill for sport. Every animal had its own way to relieve boredom, and for some, hunting was just as much about pleasure as it was food. Humans often thought themselves monsters for crimes they committed upon each other, but nature was a lot more brutal than they expected. Murder, rape, sport hunting, cannibalism, all happened in the animal world. If anything, perhaps it made humans a more noble species, if only because they could regret their crimes. Indeed, this male had been a victim of such brutality. A year ago, he had been savaged by another of his kind while on the border of his normal feeding grounds. Such actions were common place in the animal world, but this one had not been out of territorialism, or the desire to secure mates. No, this attack had been motivated by anger. His assailant had been forced away from a kill by a Carnufex, and while he had had the luck of getting a larger feast soon after said eviction, he hadn't taken the loss well. When he had seen a rival basking in the sunlight, said rival's serene appearance had enraged him. Why could this creature have a nice day when he could not? Thus the rival had predator had charged the now captured male, inflicting deep wounds upon him. Though the wounds had long since healed, the victim could still remember where he had been struck, and felt those spots over while he laid in the carrier. He'd managed to survive, but the venomous predator had suffered quite a huge amount of misfortune following this incident. His injuries had impaired his ability to function properly, leaving him unable to hunt large game. Scavenging had sustained him, but he had grow noticeably weaker, and now parasites were beginning to ravage his body. His attacker was long dead, having been killed in another battle with the same crocodilian relative that had evicted him from his meal, but if his victim had known this, and had the capacity for rational thought, he would have considered his rival the better off of the two. At least he got a quick end. Now, all that the enclosed male could do was ponder what would happen next. XXXXXXXXX Back at the park, Vera and Alice are working with the plesiadapids. Right now, the yare focusing on one of the juveniles. Vera watched as the female primate scampered up the tree. Once she reached the canopy, she leapt toward an adjacent tree, only to slip and fall to the ground. She attempted this three times more, before reluctantly giving up and settling for hiding in a hole within one of the trees. Turning to Alice, Vera frowned. "You think our plan will work?" "I have no idea, but we have to hope so - if it doesn't, I don't think this little girl will be able to stay with her family long. Her mother will probably kick her out." "True. La vida de un animal es aspera. If this one doesn't learn to climb, she's not gonna do well. I mena, we'll care for her, but he chances of breeding are going to drop down to zero." "No doubt there. So, who goes first?" "I'll do it." Back on the trees, the female primate made another attempt to jump between trees, and once again fell. This time, though, she heard a loud noise as she fell. It was strange, irritating, and most of all scary. She tried again, only to be met with failure, and the same strange noise. Turning, she saw that one of the strange bipeds was holding some kind of weird object with a big red part on it. The one holding it had her index finger on top of the object, and once she lifted said finger, the noise stopped. Briefly, the primate tried to stare them off, but to no avail. In fact, all her actions resulted in was the annoying noise filling the air again. Defeated on that front, the female primate turned her attention back to jumping between the branches. This time, though, she focused on her target destination, allowing her instincts to judge the distance. She waited until she was sure about her landing spot, before taking another leap. This time, she hit her target and didn't fall. Additionally, the noise did not fill the air. "Well, she learning," noted Alice. "This might just be a fluke, Alice - we need to let her try again." "I know that. We need a least a day to condition her correctly." XXXXXXXXXXXX Back in the past, the team, against the odds, has caught up with the dicynodonts. Only meters away from the pony sized herbivores, the team quietly observed as they rooted through the ground, using their tusks to pull out juicy morsels from the earth. Joining them were a group of aetosaurs, who occasionally attempted to push the dicynodonts away from choice morsels. The crocodile relatives succeeded as often as the failed. Nearby, fish swam in a lake, uncaring for the reactions of the synapsids and archosaurs. The team shared a look, before deciding to make their move. Cautiously, they began to set up the land based portal, while the camera crew assembled the aquatic one. The latter came online first, and using a piece of the dicynodont carcass as bait, the various ancient fish in the water, among them freshwater sharks, began to dart into the portal. On land, meanwhile, the team had finished setting up the portal, and was ready to bait in the herbivores. To their surprise, though, other creatures had joined the leaf eaters - dinosaur-like reptiles, a crocodile look-alike, rhynchosaurs, and actual dinosaurs! Oh, and a group of predators hiding in the bushes that look exactly like what they were hunting for. The team, silently praising their luck, decided to try and coax the herbivores into the portal using an old trick. Taking out a bright red tarp, the team waved it around, hoping to coax the dicynodonts into the portal. At first, none noticed, but eventually, one decided to examine them and went into the portal. Another followed, and soon over a dozen had entered the portal, with many of the others following suite. The team could only smile as more creatures entered the portal. Eventually, the Carnufex made their move, and charged. Though they intended to attack a dicynodont, they ended up catching an aetosaur in the crossfire. The group stared on, bewildered, as the herbivores and smaller predators charged into the portal, abandoning the two trapped plant eaters to their fate. The shock quickly wore off, and the team responded by throwing the dicynodont carcass to the ground, which quickly took up the predators' attentions. As they moved in to secure the kill, their would-be victims vanished into the portal. Just as the team readied to try and spook the crocodilians into the portal, though, five huge figures emerged from the water. They resembled rauisuchians, but with crocodilian snouts, which ended in a pronounced, curved overbite. As the predators readied to fight, thunder rumbled overhead - the storm clouds now covered the sky, and the rain had finally arrived. XXXXX As the storm raged above, the two packs of predators continued to his and howl at each other, trying to discourage the opposing species from the carcass. As neither was willing to back down, the fight had become more physical, with individuals from both sides snapping and slashing at their foes. All the while, the team observed this, unsure how to react. Finally, though, the stalemate broke. One of the crocodilian look-alikes scored a lucky hit and managed to grievously wound one of the land dwellers, which was thrown into the air and landed hard by the team. Desperately, the predator tried to stand up, but its injuries were too severe, and it collapsed after one attempt to raise itself. Lucas was first to react. Setting down his earlier capture, he ran up to the fallen predator and, after a brief struggle to restrain the carnivore, began applying come antibiotic coverings to the wound. As the fight raged on ahead of him, he turned to the rest of the team and threw some rope. Nobody needed to ask what that meant. Hastily, the team tied the rope around the carcass's midline, just barely avoiding directing the predators' ire on themselves, before dashing into the portal. A moment later, and the rope suddenly went taut, dragging the carcass into the present. For a moment, the carnivores halted their conflict, declaring a truce while they gawked at the sight of their meal disappearing. Then they charged onwards, unwilling to abandon the meat. Then they arrived in the present, and rapidly found themselves corralled into holding pens. Soon, the warring carnivores were enjoying good meals, their previous conflict forgotten. The team, meanwhile, was moving the injured crurotorsan to Suzanne's clinic, where it could receive proper treatment. XXXXXXX Hours later, the new residents were already adjusting to their new homes. The phytosaurs were already meeting their relatives, as were the Placerias, the aetosaurs, and dinosaurs. Among them, a blue headed, red browed Coelophysis was busy tearing into a large bug, and squabbling over it with his cousins. How such a dinosaur had shown up at a time before it should have evolved and in a place far east of its know range eluded the staff, but they weren't complaining - they'd already dealt with this when they had first rescued its kind. Lucas, meanwhile, had decided to stick with Suzanne as she treated the injured Carnufex. She'd also taken to helping clean the Uatchitodon of parasites. Both creatures now stared at the bookish human, who was already offering them food. Some distance away, Alice and Vera were still working with their primate friend, conditioning her to look before she leapt. Last but not least, the aquatic crocodilian relatives, which the team had determined to be Archosaurus, were basking in the sun, all happy in their new home. Next time, the team goes back to Prehistoric Oregon on the trail of another prehistoric crocodile... (Tai is almost tipped out of the boat as a crocodilian collides with it) ...while also meeting some Jurassic celebrities... (Shot of a plesiosaur and ichthyosaur examining the team) ….While at the park, Lucas, Alice, and Vera continue working with the residents... (Shot of Alice and Vera continuing to work with the Plesiadapis) ….All next time on Prehistoric Park! XXXXXXXXX AN: Here's a few things I am not going to put in the trivia. Listen up! 1. The Archosaurus are a type of proterosuchid, a group once called chasmatosaurs, in case you want some idea what they looked like. Look at the version of this story on Spacebattles for a link. 2. The aforementioned Coelophysis is the one that showed up in When Dinosaurs Roamed America. 3. This episode focused on the Pekin Formation, but it also had animals form the Dockum Group and other parts of the Newark Super Group. 4. The scene where the two groups of predators was based on the fight between the two Utahraptor packs in Dinosaur Revolution. '5. Lastly,I wanted to do a chapter of the main story entirely focused on the animals and environment. Here it is. ' So, Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!